“We are proud to be the first hospital in the Twin Cities marketplace to have achieved this milestone,” said Joanne Sunquist, CIO. “During our eight year journey to HIMSS Stage 7, HCMC has been blessed with significant board and executive level support, a very passionate EMR team and an extremely engaged customer base. Our physicians in particular have done an outstanding job of embracing new technologies.”

As of Quarter 2, 2012, HCMC is one of only 95 U.S. facilities, or 1.7 percent, of the more than 5,000 U.S. hospitals in the HIMSS Analytics® Database, to be awarded the HIMSS Analytics Stage 7 Award.

HIMSS Analytics developed the EMR Adoption Model in 2005 as a methodology for evaluating the progress and impact of electronic medical record systems for hospitals in the HIMSS Analytics™ Database. There are eight stages (0-7) that measure a hospital’s implementation and utilization of information technology applications. The final stage, Stage 7, represents an advanced patient record environment. The validation process to confirm a hospital has reached Stage 7 includes a site visit by an executive from HIMSS Analytics and former or current chief information officers to ensure an unbiased evaluation of the Stage 7 environments.

“Hennepin County Medical Center is extremely strong in intelligent medical device connectivity for all physiologic monitors on all units as well as point-of-care devices connected to the system to eliminate data transcription errors,” says John P. Hoyt, FACHE, FHIMSS, Executive Vice President, HIMSS Analytics. “This is a data-driven culture, with numerous information placards in patient care areas depicting scores on core measures and other key clinical and administrative measures for staff, patients and families to see. In addition, the medical center is environmentally friendly, since the nursing units are virtually paperless.”